Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday pressed the U.S. Secret Service for details regarding its ongoing investigation into the discovery of cocaine at the White House.
The Secret Service confirmed that cocaine was found in the West Wing of the White House on Sunday, believed to have been brought in by someone who works there or had authorization to be there. This development has prompted Republican lawmakers to raise broader questions about security and drug use at the presidential residence.
In a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Mr. Cotton urged the agency to promptly provide information regarding the specific location within the White House complex where the substance was found.
“The American people deserve to know whether illicit drugs were found in an area where confidential information is exchanged,” wrote Mr. Cotton (pdf).
The letter posed a series of questions to Ms. Cheatle, seeking clarification on the security of the complex and requesting the Secret Service’s plan to address any identified security flaws.
“If the White House complex is not secure, Congress needs to know the details, as well as your plan to correct any security flaws,” wrote Mr. Cotton, who is a member of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism.
He also requested a “complete list” of individuals who can enter the White House without undergoing full security screenings as well as those who are subject to lesser security screening requirements than those entering the West Wing, along with “the reasons such individuals are not subject to complete screening.”
Mr. Cotton also asked for data on the Secret Service’s use of K-9 screenings and information about audits conducted on their security procedures.
The letter additionally inquired about the frequency of encounters with illegal drugs at the White House complex over the past five years. Citing a section of the U.S. Code, Mr. Cotton asked whether the Secret Service would exercise its authority to make warrantless arrests for offenses committed in their presence or for any felony under federal law if the individual responsible for bringing cocaine into the White House is identified.
The Republican senator gave the Secret Service director until 5 p.m. on July 14 to respond. He also requested a briefing on the matter and the provision of classified or law enforcement-sensitive answers to his questions.
White House Tight Lipped
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided providing specifics when asked several times about the location where the cocaine was found and the potential consequences that might emerge from the Secret Service’s investigation.
She informed reporters on Wednesday that the substance was discovered in a “heavily traveled” area of the West Wing, which is routinely accessed by visitors and staff. She expressed confidence in the Secret Service’s investigation but would not be drawn to provide further details, repeatedly saying the probe is “under their purview.”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, told The Epoch Times on Wednesday they are going to do their best “to identify who may have brought it in.” He said the illicit substance was found in an area closed to the public but accessible by staff, the media, guests, and others with business in the West Wing during the security screening process.
“There’s a multitude of individuals who come through this area. It’s an open area for individuals who are authorized to be in the West Wing,” Mr. Guglielmi said.
Responding to the news, former President Donald Trump, a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, took to Truth Social to express skepticism.
“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter and Joe Biden,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday.
Ms. Jean-Pierre noted that the president and his family were at Camp David over the weekend. “They left on Friday and returned just yesterday,” she said at Wednesday’s press briefing.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, another 2024 candidate, expressed disbelief during an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s nationally syndicated radio show on Wednesday. Pence said it would be “wall to wall” media coverage if cocaine had been found in the West Wing during the Trump–Pence administration.
“I mean, if the news accounts I read are right, this was in, this was not in the White House complex, right?” Pence said. “This was in the residence itself, if I understand,” he added. “It was in the library in the White House.”
“We ought to know in real-time who brought and left cocaine on a table in the residence in the White House, but I’m not holding my breath,” he added.
The White House was briefly evacuated on Sunday night after the Secret Service found the illicit substance, which at the time it described only as an “unknown item.” The discovery of the mysterious substance in the West Wing prompted the dispatch of a hazmat team as well as the D.C. Fire Department and EMS.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter and Joe Biden,” ???
“It was in the library in the White House.” “Pence said it would be “wall to wall” media coverage if cocaine had been found in the West Wing during the Trump–Pence administration.
“We ought to know in real-time who brought and left cocaine on a table in the residence in the White House,
but I’m not holding my breath,” he added.
What have we allowed to happen to the so-called leadership of this country??
We have allowed those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars, become the misleaders of our country. 🙁 🙁 🙁
ONE report says it was in the library. A PLACE I’d highly doubt you’d ever find either hunter OR JOE. THEN more recent reports says it was found in lockers…
WHICH ARE we to believe??
Finding COCAIN in the WHITE HOUSE Explains alot of strange things thats been going on in Joe Biden’s Term in office as president
Dumbest, most ignorant people in America?
Democrat voters!
Um..I’m sure that coke belongs to Hunter. If there was a drug that Joe might need it would be Meth (to keep him awake during speeches).
Drug test for 100% of the WH, any fails.. your out! Obviously, they are overpaid.
Any Sane executive running a business would demand drug tests of any suspected employee on the premises, including the last Democrat Presidents FDR and Kennedy who knew how to execute. Since the Clintons took over it is impossible to hire and get Democrat Apparatchik staff approved if drug tests are required. Driving while drugged is liable to jail sentences. Governing while drugged apparently is OK when people of Criminal mindsets and crime families established are elected to serve,,,,,which usually just ends up serving themselves with pleasures of the immediate gratifications while THE PEOPLE pay the price in long term pain and debt and failed government run by distorted minds led by 80 year old brains that have to use drugs to function and self-drugged guys like Hunter considered to be the smartest guy in the group. The glaring failures of the Biden administration become more understandable once the drugs are factored into the examinations of why their failures are more pandemic than the COVID they embraced so well.
YOu can bet JOE AND ALL of his cronies, would be immune to those drug tests.
The presence of coke in the White House would explain some of the screwball policies that this administration keeps coming up with! Too bad they don’t drug test employees like other branches of government do, and kick them out when they test positive.
> > > Hunter !
Well, this isn’t the first time a white substance has been found in the office of a democrat president…
Like the statue of the three monkeys sitting together, The Biden administration , “sees no evil, hears no evil, Sees no evil.”
“If Hillary Clinton had been elected president it would be the first time a women sat behind the Oval Desk instead of under it.”
Author unknown
LOL! PRESIDENT TRUMP doesn’t use alcohol, let alone crack cocaine.
He also doesn’t draw his well earned salary and attends his own press conferences answering hardball questions. He also doesn’t give our billions of our tax dollars away to a bar dancer in some Fascist country.
What we now have is a “Ship of Fools” or the nasty bunch of ruthless Marxists wrecking and eliminating our way of life on purpose! Constant turmoil each and every day with NO end in sight!
Democrat party says ,like the snake who bit the farmer after the farmer picked up the snake to warm it up back to life , ” But you knew that i was a snake when you picked me up…” A Fable.
Hunter told his father it was coke cola. And the coke was delicious. Lol